Lewis Hamilton trolls Ferrari over Sebastian Vettel hearing evidence

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton trolls Ferrari over Vettel hearing evidence

'I was pretty relaxed after that...'

Matthew Scott

Saturday 22 June 2019 17:55

Lewis Hamilton delivered a scornful assessment of Ferrari's package of evidence presented to the FIA in an attempt to have Sebastian Vettel's Canadian Grand Prix penalty overturned, saying he was "pretty relaxed" when he learned what the Scuderia had brought.

Ferrari saw their attempts to have the incident reviewed turned down by the FIA< confirming Hamilton's Montreal victory.

Scuderia sporting director Laurent Mekies had claimed that the evidence was "overwhelming" in showing that Vettel had done no wrong.

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However, it soon emerged that the new evidence comprised of a driver-facing onboard from Vettel's car and an analysis piece done by Sky Sports pundit Karun Chandhok.

With Hamilton absent from Paul Ricard on Thursday in order to attend a memorial to Karl Lagerfeld, he had concerns that his disrupted preparations would be further affected by Ferrari's hearing – until he learned of their dossier.

"I think the weekend started off a little different," he said. "We arrive usually on Thursday morning or Wednesday night. I got here on Thursday evening.

"We got through our programme no problem, but if you're used to a normal four-day programme and you change it, it's not always the easiest.

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"It was definitely odd coming here knowing Ferrari was spending time focusing on something else.

"With my team, I would have them focusing on trying to improve the car.

"But then we came here, had that, and when I arrived and heard it was Karun Chandhok's video that was the new evidence, then I was pretty relaxed after that, and I just put it behind me."

Hamilton put the strange preparation behind him to take pole position in France, leading Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in a front-row lockout.